Is Green Tea Good For Lung Cancer

May Protect The Brain From Aging

Not only can green tea improve brain function in the short term, it may also protect your brain as you age.

Alzheimers disease is a common neurodegenerative disease and the most common cause of dementia in older adults .

Parkinsons disease is another common neurodegenerative disease and involves the death of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain.

Several studies show that the catechin compounds in green tea can have various protective effects on neurons in test tubes and animal models, possibly lowering the risk of dementia (

41 ).

Type 2 diabetes involves having elevated blood sugar levels, which may be caused by insulin resistance or an inability to produce insulin.

Studies show that green tea may improve insulin sensitivity and reduce blood sugar levels .

One study in Japanese individuals found that those who drank the most green tea had an approximately 42% lower risk of type 2 diabetes .

According to a review of 7 studies with a total of 286,701 individuals, tea drinkers had an 18% lower risk of diabetes .

Summary

Some controlled studies show that green tea may cause mild reductions in blood sugar levels. It may also lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Cancer Prevention By Green Tea: Evidence From Epidemiologic Studies

Presented at the conference Fifth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health, held at the US Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, 19 September 2012. The conference was organized by Jeffrey Blumberg, Tufts University, Boston, MA, and a Steering Committee including representatives from each of the symposium cosponsors: the American Cancer Society, the American College of Nutrition, the American Institute for Cancer Research, the American Medical Womens Association, the American Society for Nutrition, and the Linus Pauling Institute. The symposium was underwritten by the Tea Council of the USA. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Tea Council of the USA or the cosponsoring organizations.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Does The Consumption Of Green Tea Reduce The Risk Of Lung Cancer Among Smokers

Andy H. Lee

1School of Public Health, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia

Abstract

Experimental and epidemiological studies were reviewed to assess whether the consumption of green tea could reduce the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Articles published since 1990 were located by searching electronic databases PubMed, Ovid and Science Direct, using keywords lung cancer, tea and smoking without any restriction on language. After relevant articles had been located, further papers were obtained from their reference lists. Evidence from experimental studies suggested that regular intake of green tea may be protective against tobacco carcinogens. However, the mechanism behind the protective effect is only partly understood. In most of the epidemiological studies reviewed, the green tea exposure was within 5 years of the interview or follow-up, which would coincide with the induction period and latent period of lung cancer. Longer term studies are thus needed to further quantify the cancer risk. There is some evidence suggesting regular intake of green tea at high level may reduce the risk of smokers developing lung cancer. Improvement in measuring green tea intake is required in order to confirm the evidence from epidemiological studies.

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Help Protect Your Teeth From Bacteria

White tea is a great source of fluoride, catechins and tannins .

This combination of molecules could help strengthen teeth by fighting bacteria and sugar.

Fluoride can help prevent dental cavities by making the surface of teeth more resistant to acid attacks by bacteria in combination with sugar (

24 ).

Tannins are another type of polyphenol in white tea. Studies show that the combination of tannins and fluoride could also inhibit the growth of plaque-causing bacteria .

Summary White tea is a great source of fluoride, catechins and tannins. Several studies have shown that these compounds can help fight bacteria that cause plaque on teeth.

Choosing Green Tea Supplements For Your Cancer

The reason there is no easy way to answer the question When should I avoid Green Tea for Cancer is because It Depends!. Just like the same treatment does not work for every cancer patient, based on your individual context the Green Tea may be harmful or safe. Along with which cancer and associated genetics the ongoing treatments, supplements, lifestyle habits, BMI and allergies are all factors deciding if Green Tea should be avoided or not and why.

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What Evidence From Human Studies Links Tea To Cancer Prevention

Tea has long been regarded as an aid to good health, and many believe it can help reduce the risk of cancer. Most studies of tea and cancer prevention have focused on green tea . Although tea and/or tea polyphenols have been found in animal studies to inhibit tumorigenesis at different organ sites, including the skin, lung, oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, liver, pancreas, and mammary gland , the results of human studiesboth epidemiologic and clinical studieshave been inconclusive.

Epidemiologic Studies

More than 50 epidemiologic studies of the association between tea consumption and cancer risk have been published since 2006. The results of these studies have often been inconsistent, but some have linked tea consumption to reduced risks of cancers of the colon, breast, ovary, prostate, and lung . The inconsistent results may be due to variables such as differences in tea preparation and consumption, the types of tea studied , the methods of tea production, the bioavailability of tea compounds, genetic variation in how people respond to tea consumption, the concomitant use of tobacco and alcohol, and other lifestyle factors that may influence a persons risk of developing cancer, such as physical activity or weight status.

Clinical Trials

Several clinical trials have investigated the role of tea and tea polyphenols in cancer prevention . However, few trials have examined the effects of tea or tea polyphenols on cancer incidence or mortality.

Up To 80 Percent Of Cancer Cells Destroyed

Quantum dots are under 10 nanometers in diameter. They are usually created chemically, and they have already been used in computers and TV screens.

However, as Pitchaimuthu and team explain, this chemical production process is often complicated and costly, and it can have a range of adverse toxic effects. So, the researchers wanted to explore a plant-based, non-toxic production alternative.

To do so, they mixed tea leaf extract with cadmium sulfate and sodium sulfide. After leaving the substances to incubate, quantum dots were formed.

Then, they applied the quantum dots to cancer cells. They found that the anti-cancer properties of the nanoparticles were comparable to those of the widely used chemotherapy drug cisplatin .

In fact, the study revealed that quantum dots infiltrated the nanopores of the cancer cells, destroying up to 80 percent of them.

Pitchaimuthu comments on the findings, saying, Our research confirmed previous evidence that tea leaf extract can be a non-toxic alternative to making quantum dots using chemicals.

The real surprise, however, was that the dots actively inhibited the growth of the lung cancer cells. We hadnt been expecting this Quantum dots are therefore a very promising avenue to explore for developing new cancer treatments.

Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu

He also shared some of his aims for future research, saying, Building on this exciting discovery, the next step is to scale up our operation, hopefully with the help of other collaborators.

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Green Tea Blocks Benefits Of Cancer Drug

Date:

University of Southern California

Summary:

Contrary to popular assumptions about the health benefits of green tea, researchers have found that the widely used supplement renders a cancer drug used to treat multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma completely ineffective in treating cancer.

Contrary to popular assumptions about the health benefits of green tea, researchers at the University of Southern California have found that the widely used supplement renders a cancer drug used to treat multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma completely ineffective in treating cancer.

The study, which found that a component of green tea extract called EGCG destroys any anticancer activity of the drug Velcade in tumor-bearing mice, will be published in the journal Blood.

“Our finding that GTE or EGCG blocked the therapeutic action of Velcade was completely unexpected,” says lead author Axel H. Schönthal, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Our hypothesis was that GTE or EGCG would enhance the anti-tumor effects of Velcade, and that a combination of GTE with Velcade would turn out to be a superior cancer treatment as compared to treatment with Velcade alone.”

Clincal trials to verify these results in humans would be highly unethical to conduct, because of the predictably unfavorable outcome. Nevertheless, the researchers expect the results of the study to be applicable to cancer patients.

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Green Tea May Ward Off Lung Cancer

Smokers who indulge in the drink may enjoy a lower cancer risk.

At least a cup a day was associated with more than 5-fold lower lung cancer risk among Taiwanese adults, reported I-Hsin Lin, of the Chung Shan Medical University in Zhonghe City, Taiwan, and colleagues.

Moreover, for current and former smokers, regular green tea intake was associated with a nearly 13-fold lower risk than abstaining from the drink, suggesting that the antioxidants in tea have “an inhibitory effect…elicited by smoking,” the researchers said.

These findings were reported at the American Association for Cancer Research-International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer.

“We suggest smokers or nonsmokers, both of them, should drink green tea to keep away from lung cancer,” Lin told MedPage Today. “However, the cessation of smoking is the best way for cancer prevention.”

Indeed, preventing cancer with green tea is appealing, but it’s too soon for a clinical recommendation, said Dr. Roy Herbst of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Tex., and a chair of the conference.

“It should probably be the basis of a hypothesis for a larger chemoprevention trial across multiple populations,” he said in an interview.

Most participants in both groups reported drinking no green tea. But seven of the 170 cases and 64 of the 340 controls said they typically drank at least one four-ounce cup per day.

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Green Tea And Metastasis Of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world and represents a major public health problem. The preventive effect of green tea catechins intake on lung tumor metastasis was examined in senescence-accelerated mice prone 10. Green tea catechins intake increased natural killer cell activity, which is an indicator of immune surveillance potential and was reduced in control group mice with age. Mice were given intravenous injection of the melanoma cells and the early accumulation of lung-metastatic K1735M2 melanoma cells and the subsequent experimental lung metastasis was investigated after treatment with green tea catechins. The accumulation at 6 and 24 h after injection of melanoma cells and the number of lung-metastatic colonies were significantly reduced in mice treated with green tea catechins as compared to mice in control group suggesting that green tea catechin intake prevented the experimental tumor metastasis in aged SAMP10 mice via inhibition of the reduction in immune surveillance potential with age . The effect of cytokines, mitogens, and inhibitors on MMP-2 and -9 expressions in human lung cancer A549 cells malignant melanoma MSTO-211H cells was investigated. EGCG inhibited MMP-2 and -9 expressions in both cell lines . It has been shown that EGCG had an inhibitory effect on bronchial tumor cells migration in 2D and 3D cell culture models. Treatment with EGCG also inhibited MMP-2 mRNA and protein expression and altered the intermediate filaments of vimentin .

Use In Breast Cancer Treatment

Given the potential for breast cancer prevention, it’s natural to wonder if green tea could also slow down the growth of cancer cells in people who already have breast cancer.

So far, most studies have been done on breast cancer cells in the lab or in mice , but the results to date are encouraging.

To understand the growth of cancer, and how green tea may work, it’s helpful to think of the different processes that must take place for cancer to grow and spread. In looking at these separate steps, researchers have found that:

• Green tea appears to inhibit the growth of cancer. Several studies have found the division of breast cancer cells and increase in size of a tumor was decreased by green tea components.
• Green tea was found to limit metastases to the lungs and liver, common places for breast cancer to spread, in rodents with breast cancer. Since most breast cancer deaths are from metastases , this is very good news.
• Green tea may help with programmed cell death of breast cancer cells. To understand this, it helps to understand that normal cells “commit” apoptosis when they become injured or old. Cancer cells seem to have found a way to avoid this process, essentially making them “immortal,” so getting these abnormal cells to die off, as they should, is an important step.

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Adcocks, C., Collin, P., and Buttle, D. J. Catechins from green tea inhibit bovine and human cartilage proteoglycan and type II collagen degradation in vitro. J Nutr. 2002 132:341-346. View abstract.

Agarwal, A., Prasad, R., and Jain, A. Effect of green tea extract in reducing oxidative stress seen in patients of pulmonary tuberculosis on DOTS Cat I regimen. Phytomedicine. 2010 17:23-27. View abstract.

Ahmed, S., Wang, N., Lalonde, M., Goldberg, V. M., and Haqqi, T. M. Green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate differentially inhibits interleukin-1 beta-induced expression of matrix metalloproteinase-1 and -13 in human chondrocytes. J Pharmacol.Exp.Ther. 2004 308:767-773. View abstract.

Al-Sowyan, N. S. Difference in leptin hormone response to nutritional status in normal adult male albino rats. Pak.J Biol.Sci. 1-15-2009 12:119-126. View abstract.

Alemdaroglu, N. C., Dietz, U., Wolffram, S., Spahn-Langguth, H., and Langguth, P. Influence of green and black tea on folic acid pharmacokinetics in healthy volunteers: potential risk of diminished folic acid bioavailability. Biopharm.Drug Dispos. 2008 29:335-348. View abstract.

Alexopoulos, N., Vlachopoulos, C., Aznaouridis, K., Baou, K., Vasiliadou, C., Pietri, P., Xaplanteris, P., Stefanadi, E., and Stefanadis, C. The acute effect of green tea consumption on endothelial function in healthy individuals. Eur.J Cardiovasc.Prev.Rehabil. 2008 15:300-305. View abstract.

Are Green Tea Supplements Safe For Healthy Individuals With Rad50 Mutation Associated Genetic Risk

Different companies offer panels of genes to be tested for assessing genetic risk to different cancers. These panels cover genes associated with cancers of the breast, ovary, uterus, prostate, and gastrointestinal system and others. Genetic testing of these genes may confirm a diagnosis and help guide treatment and management decisions. Identification of a disease-causing variant may also guide testing and diagnosis of at-risk relatives. RAD50 is one of the genes generally available in panels for cancer risk testing.

RAD50 mutation causes biochemical pathways Angiogenesis, Estrogen Signaling, Stem Cell Signaling, DNA Repair and Growth Factor Signaling to get impacted. These pathways are direct or indirect drivers of cancer molecular endpoints. Green Tea should be avoided when the genetic panel identifies mutation of RAD50 for Breast Cancer. Green Tea impacts pathways like Angiogenesis and Estrogen Signaling and creates adverse effects with RAD50 and related conditions.

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Green Tea Could Modify The Effect Of Cigarette Smoking On Lung Cancer Risk

Date:

American Association for Cancer Research

Summary:

Green tea can reduce the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Benefits were also seen in non-smokers.

Drinking green tea could modulate the effect of smoking on lung cancer.

Results of this hospital-based, randomized study conducted in Taiwan were presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, held here from Jan. 11-14, 2010.

“Lung cancer is the leading cause of all cancer deaths in Taiwan,” said I-Hsin Lin, M.S., a student at Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan. “Tea, particularly green tea, has received a great deal of attention because tea polyphenols are strong antioxidants, and tea preparations have shown inhibitory activity against tumorigenesis.”

However, previous studies of green tea have been inhibited by the flaws of the epidemiologic model with its inherent biases.

Lin and colleagues enrolled 170 patients with lung cancer and 340 healthy patients as controls. The researchers administered questionnaires to obtain demographic characteristics, cigarette smoking habits, green tea consumption, dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, cooking practices and family history of lung cancer. They also performed genotyping on insulin-like growth factors as polymorphisms on the following insulin-like growth factors: IGF1, IGF2 and IGFBP3, which have all been reported to be associated with cancer risk.

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May Lower The Risk Of Insulin Resistance

Insulin is an incredibly important hormone. It helps move nutrients from the bloodstream into the cells to be used or stored for later.

However, as a result of several factors, including high sugar consumption, some people stop responding to insulin. This is called insulin resistance.

Sadly, insulin resistance is very common and is linked to many chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and metabolic syndrome .

Interestingly, studies have found that polyphenols like the ones in white tea may lower your risk of insulin resistance .

Animal studies have found that EGCG and other polyphenols found in white tea may enhance the effects of insulin and prevent high blood sugar levels .

In an analysis of 17 studies with over 1,100 people, scientists found that the molecules inside teas, like polyphenols, significantly reduced blood sugar and insulin levels .

While the research seems promising, more human-based studies specifically on white tea will help clarify whether it can reduce the risk of insulin resistance.

Summary Insulin resistance is a harmful condition linked to many chronic diseases. Studies have shown that polyphenols like those found in white tea may lower the risk of insulin resistance and improve blood sugar control.

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